Broken & Burned (19 page)

I downed my coffee and got on my soft shoes. I stretched and warmed up after putting on some music and my students started showing up and dropped into doing the same. God I was sore! I wouldn’t trade the night before with Dray for anything though. I sighed.

“Everett Mary Moran!” I turned to see my best friend, hands on her hips looking pretty put out with me.

“Mandy what’s wrong?” I asked.

“You!” she exclaimed in a hiss when she got close to me. I frowned perplexed and she huffed out a sigh.

“You didn’t answer any of my calls or texts last night. I was worried!” I leaned back and felt a furious blush overtake me as my face fell. Several of my students laughed.

“Oh. My. God.” Mandy said and turned a brilliant shade of red herself. “Okay! Um, oh my god, okay. You were busy. Got it!” She looked flustered and I closed my eyes. Thank god all my students were eighteen to twenty somethings today. I know
I
was still an eighteen to twenty something but I was also just that damned good to be teaching them.

“Mandy.” I said when she really started to babble.

“Yeah Evy?” she asked meekly, I led her over to the line of chairs against the wall and Ashton.

“Mandy, meet Ashton. Ashton, Mandy is my BFF when I’m not busy being horrible and self-absorbed. Mandy, Ashton is Trigger’s Old Lady and knows Dray pretty well. I have a class to teach,” I gave a pleading look to Ashton and she smiled sweetly.

“I’ll tell your friend all about Dray and how he’s
not
an ax murderer.” She said, reading my look correctly.

“Thank you.” I turned on the class.

“Places please!? First number. I want to do a run through and for anybody still laughing you can stay after and do two.” The faces fell into careful lines of not-laughter and I smiled sweetly.

“That’s what I thought.”

We took it from the top and mid-way through I saw Ashton on her phone. Mandy was smiling and taking pictures with hers. I laughed inwardly and pushed my class. They were getting ready for a community theater fund raiser for the homeless and some were even getting ready to try out with some troupes for tour. It was class end and I was standing with John McGuigan, one of the best male dancers I’d ever been able to pair with, when I felt that burning stare of Dray’s on me. I looked up and my smile faltered when I saw jealousy slide through his dark gaze. Oh boy. I could fix that, all I needed to do was get John to talk. He was gay and had a very effeminate way of speaking.

I went over to the surprising crowd of onlookers. In addition to Dray was his father Dragon, Reaver, Trigger and the lanky young tattooed man everyone called Squick the night before as well as the other hang-around, the one with the custom chopper, I didn’t get his name.

“Wow. Where did you all come from!?” I exclaimed laughing. Ashton looked sheepish. Ah ha.

“Came to see what all the fuss was about. Ashton mass texted everyone.” Dragon laughed.

“Ahhh, well!” I blushed, I really didn’t know what to do with all of this.

“Hi, I’m John.” John waved at everyone and Dray had the grace to look embarrassed. It was Squick’s reaction, however, that was somewhat priceless. He looked at John, I mean
really
looked and it looked like he liked what he saw. I smiled at him and he startled and checked to see if anyone else had noticed.

Oh.

Ashton winked at me and hugged Squick. Interesting so she knew and it was a secret. I filed that away. Mandy was looking at me and then at all of the delicious man candy and smiling at me with her ‘I am so going to get you bitch’ smile. Probably for not sharing sooner. I smiled back and shrugged a little. I’d been horribly wrapped up in Dray. I made introductions until I got to the man whose name I didn’t know, he gave me a one sided grin and supplied it for me.

“I’m Zander. Nice to meet you Ev.” He said and shook my hand.

“Evy Baby, do you think we could do one last run of the third dance?” John asked. Show off that he was he picked the most difficult but also the one that his partner was having the most difficulty in.

“Trying to figure out what she’s doing wrong?” I asked.

“Oh I
know
what it is but I want to be sure,” he waved a hand as if waving off a fly, “You know how she is.” I rolled my eyes.

“Yep. Do you guys mind?” I asked and people started finding seats, grinning at my expense.

“Guess not. Okay!” I kissed Dray and he kissed me back I sat down and switched back from my hard shoes to my soft shoes while John checked his laces on his hard shoes. I put on the music, took place and went for it.

I swayed and spun and leaped and stepped and did what I did to the very best of my ability. Not because I had an audience but because it was how I always danced… but I would be lying if I said I didn’t put in any extra effort knowing that Dray’s eyes were on me. We danced a number that was clearly one of those ‘anything you can do I can do better’ type of dances between a man and a woman, which was a lot more complex than it sounded given him being in hard shoes and me in soft.

Midway through the number he had his solo and I got to change shoes which I only had a finite amount of time to do and do right. I pulled it off and was out and on the floor and tearing it up,
proving
the way it was meant to be proven that I indeed could do it better. I loved numbers like this. I’d had a lot of high level and cocky male students that thought they were hot shit and didn’t need to listen to me until I had them dance this number with me. I made them eat their egos once I had the hard shoes on and outpaced them. Machine gun fire from a fully automatic weapon had nothing on me when I really put my mind to it and my hard shoes to hardwood.

John and I finished our number to the last set of notes and stopped cold in the correct position breath heaving. His hand slid from my waist and he fell to his knees hands clasped together and wailed…

“Please Evy! Don’t make me do this number with Kayden! I’ll do anything!” he begged. I rolled my eyes.

“She’s not that bad!” I exclaimed.

“She is!” he insisted, and got up and I was sensing one of John’s famous temper tantrums about to erupt. I battened down the hatches of my resolve and crossed my arms and let him go. Everyone else was in stitches by the time he was through. A lot of people mistook John being just plain mean for him trying to be funny and not going to lie, he
was
hysterical, but I wasn’t having any of it. The
only
time I stepped in was as an understudy in case of injury or illness.

“Are you done yet?” I asked him and caught the towel Dray tossed me and mopped up. I needed a shower and I was starving and I was about to get medieval on John’s ass if he kept having a tantrum between me and getting some food. He sulked and threw up his hands.

“You’re not listening to sense!” he said.

“Nope, I’m just not listening to
you
Sweetheart. I’m starving and I need a shower so if there isn’t anything else I’m hitting the locker room and letting my man over there take me to lunch.” I raised my eyebrows and he looked from me to the pile of man candy on the opposite side of the room.

“Which one?” he asked.

“The dark one.” I answered.

“Isn’t he a little old for you?” he asked picking out Dragon, who barked a laugh.

“The
other
dark one.” I said simply. Dray’s eyes sparkled with amusement. John looked him up and down and turned to me.

“Damn. Find me a gay one.” He said.

“I’ll work on it.” I said and he hugged me. He sighed.

“You’re dooming me to fail up there with her.” He sighed.

“Quit being such a fucking drama queen and take your skinny ass home.” I complained. He flashed a grin at me and sat down to take off his shoes.

“Be out in a sec.” I called to my crowd, still marveling at how many people were here and I went back, showered in record time and redressed even faster in jeans and a tee. I went back out to applause and whistles and I took a mock bow.

“Okay I’m free! What’s next?” I called out.

“Food!” everyone shouted back at me and we all shared in a laugh.

“Weather’s holding,” Dragon commented, “We’re ridin’.” It wasn’t a request. Ashton took my bags from me while Dray helped me into his jacket, well mine now I suppose since he’d given it to me.

“Where you guys going? I need some time with my BFF. I’ll meet you.” Mandy said.

“I said we’re riding.” Dragon winked at her.

“I’ve got room, Red.” Zander offered up. I smiled at Mandy.

“You should take him up on it.” I said, “It’ unbelievable.” My best friend chewed her lip indecisively. She was dressed well enough for it in jeans, riding boots and a cream color cable knit sweater. She had on her brown leather jacket over the sweater so she should be warm enough. It wasn’t her dress giving her pause though.
What would my father think?
Scrolled through her eyes like a reader board.

I had on jeans and a pair of black ankle boots that laced in the front along with a ladies cut black tee which was funny because Dray was pretty much dressed identically. I raised my eyebrows at my best friend in my best, ‘you’re going to be a chicken aren’t you?’ look. Her back went up like I knew it would.

“My car is safe here. Why not?” she said. Zander grinned at her and held out his arm. She swallowed nervously and linked hers through it.

“I’ll lock these in the Jeep.” Ashton murmured and Trigger took them from her.

“Damn right, I want you on the bike as often as I can get you there. We’ll come back for it later.” He said. She giggled. Everybody was parked in the lot next door and got ready at their own pace.

“Trigger, take tail gunner.” Dragon ordered and I raised a brow in question at Dray. As he explained it to me, tail gunner was always the most experienced rider... Which by the looks of things was Dragon, wasn’t it?

“Dragon’s our Pres. He’ll always ride at front, but the most experienced rider should always take the rear guard, I’m the next experienced rider but I have an inexperienced passenger so Trigger is the next for the distinction.” Dray said quietly. I nodded. Practical and true on all accounts. He grinned.

“What?” I asked.

“That’s what I like about you Em. Most girls would get all snarky about it going out there that they’re inexperienced. You, you just take it as it is and move right the fuck on. It’s sexy.” I smiled at him.

“You know what won’t be sexy?” I asked buckling on my helmet.

“What?” Reaver asked.

“When I turn into a raging fucking bitch because nobody has fed me!” I complained. There was some laughter and Dragon fired up his bike, I saw Mandy jump out of the corner of my eye and smiled at her reassuringly. Zander helped her onto his bike behind him and she looked good there. I snapped a picture with my phone to Facebook later. I shoved the phone into an inside pocket of the coat. It had my ID and debit card in the case so I didn’t need to carry a wallet.

“You gonna stand there snappin’ pictures all day or you gonna get on so we can go? Shit! You were the one bitchin’ you were starvin’.” Dragon bellowed, his slight smile betrayed that he wasn’t being serious. I got on behind Dray and snugged up tight against him.

“Looks like we need to feed the Dragon!” I yelled at him over more bikes firing up.

“Shit yeah! Move out!” He called back and gave the signal. Everyone fell into place behind him.

It was crisper than the night before, colder… the fall temperatures dropping back into what was normal for this time of year. We followed Dragon twenty minutes to the other side of town and into the lot for Gino’s Pizzeria. The place was just opening for lunch and was mostly empty which was fortunate for us, such a large party showing up unannounced as we were. We managed to get a table no problem and what was more, the staff seemed genuinely happy to see us.

We settled around several four seat tables that had been pushed together into a long row. Mandy made sure to sit next to me and I smiled at her. Her eyes were bright with excitement and I was happy she was having fun. Zander sat across from her and I took the opportunity to get a better look at him, the dim light in the bar the night before hadn’t afforded me much of a look.

He wore a red baseball hat backwards on his head but I recognized the logo. It was for an NFL team in Florida, a red pirate flag flying off a cutlass, the Buccaneer’s I think. Couldn’t tell you which city. His hair was black from what I could tell, and closely buzzed to his scalp, like a kiss of stubble along the skin where it peeked out from under the hat.

He had warm brown eyes that reminded me of chocolate caramels and was built solid. His shoulders wide and imposing. He was a solid wall of muscle and completely proportionate all the way through. Still, even though his eyes might be warm and his smile equally so his chipped front tooth and crooked nose said he was no stranger to holding his own in a barroom brawl or late night tousle. He smiled at my best friend and his smile, like his nose, was crooked but endearingly so.

He held one large fist inside the other and propped his elbows on the table and leaned his mouth against his hands. He had modest black gauges in both ears and a piercing in his eyebrow, which both of them bore scars from past fights now that I looked at them. His arms were inked from elbow to wrist, one arm a riot of color, oranges yellows and reds… the other simply black and white. I let my eyes skate along his skin. It almost always took me a moment or two to decipher such thorough tattoo sleeves and his was no exception. I blinked in surprise when I realized that the colorful arm was a depiction of a devil and demon riddled hell while the soothing black and white arm was a host of beautiful female angels.

“Is that
Ashton
?”  I asked, my eyes locking on the up side down face of an angel on the outside of his forearm near the elbow. His grin got wider.

“Perceptive.” He drawled and then answered my question, “Yeah it is. She was the right kind of pretty so I had Trigger ink her in.” he smiled wider and cocked his head to the side and considered Mandy.

“Wouldn’t mind puttin’ Red here on my leg, pin up style.” He said patting the outside of his thigh. Mandy blushed and tried to engage me in conversation, pointedly ignoring Zander. He winked at me when she wasn’t looking.